


38 Hours

by Mungo_of_Maundery



Category: The A-Team (TV)
Genre: Episode: s01e04 Pros and Cons, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Road Trips, Tags May Change, amy is the new kid on the block, swampleton peck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:48:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25450399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mungo_of_Maundery/pseuds/Mungo_of_Maundery
Summary: In 'Pros and Cons' B.A. states that the team set a record for going coast to coast in thirty-eight hours, but what happened during that time? Tune in to find out!
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	1. February 8th, 1983, 17:00PST.

**Author's Note:**

> going to be a bit of an epic saga, this! hope you'll all join me for the ride! tune in for a bit of a crack chapter later on when templeton peck falls into a swamp. this is a serious piece of literature i promise <3

The argument about whether to fly or drive rages for a full five minutes, and when it’s over B.A. is grinning triumphantly, and Murdock is sulking. It’s true that a plane would get them there in five hours while taking the van means a coast-to-coast road trip – but it’s also B.A.’s friend, B.A.’s case, and it was B.A.’s vote, so B.A. gets the final word on their travel arrangements. 

He pulls up the van and everyone dutifully files out for a preparatory restroom stop, and Amy ducks into the adjoining store and stockpiles food. She gets back to the van a couple of minutes after the others and runs into Face, also behind schedule, just outside the store.

“All ready?” he asks her, his arm going out to put behind her back. She raises her packed bag to demonstrate her preparedness as they head for the van and Face smiles and reaches for the back door. 

Inside, the others are already seated and ready to go. B.A. turns in his seat as they climb in and looks as though he might comment on their arrival time, until he sees that Amy is among the latecomers. Amy is touched by his restraint, as he says, “We gotta go.”

While Face flicks through a few pages of Dwight Pepper’s debut work, Amy gets out her notebook and starts taking down some preliminary notes, and Murdock folds himself up into the back of the van, wedged between two boxes and scowling.


	2. 18:00PST

Murdock’s dudgeon doesn’t last long. After a little while, he emerges from his cloud of irritability and seems to cheer up. He scoots over to Face and reads over his shoulder, occasionally giving Amy a lengthy explanation of some of the weightier psychological concepts discussed, until Amy feels confident that once she gets into that prison she will be able to blag having read the book without a problem.

Of course, she’s sure to have time to read it cover to cover, if Face hurries up. But Face seems to be a slow reader, slower than Murdock, who keeps reaching an arm over Face’s shoulder to turn the page, only to be batted away. “Wait, _wait_. I’m not finished.”

“Just give it to me and I’ll tell you the important bits.”

“Look, just – just let me _read_ it, will you?” Face glances up and meets Amy’s eye. He jerks a thumb at Murdock. “ _He_ wants me to be done already. I’ll get motion-sick!”

“You’d better not!” says B.A. threateningly. “Nobody gets sick in my van!”

A scuffle over the book has broken out between Face and Murdock. Amy leans forward. “Are they always like this?” she asks Hannibal.

“Usually,” says Hannibal, watching the fight unfold with amused benevolence. “But they’ll quiet down. It’s a long journey.”

Sure enough, Face wins the tug-of-war, and after a few half-hearted minutes of flicking distractedly through the pages, hands it to Amy with a grimace.

There’s quiet, then, for some time. Once or twice, Hannibal and B.A. exchange a few low-voiced words, discussing their route out of L.A. and the quickest way to the interstate, sharing thoughts about the upcoming mission, occasionally making a joke. B.A.’s soft chuckle and Hannibal’s laughter carries over the hum of the engine and the sounds of Face rummaging through a bag of clothes in the back of the van, and the string of psychological techno-babble Murdock is reciting to nobody in particular under his breath. 


	3. 19:00PST

“I’m hungry,” complains Murdock. “Can we stop?”

B.A. sighs. “Should’ve eaten before we left. Don’t wanna stop now – we gotta keep going, man.” 

Hannibal pats B.A.’s shoulder soothingly. “Did anyone bring anything to eat?”

There’s silence for a moment and Amy slowly raises her hand. “It’s why I was late,” she explains, with an apologetic look to B.A. She gets out her bag and pulls out some of her supplies. While she’s looking back up to Hannibal and B.A. in the front, Murdock quietly slips the bag from her knee.

B.A. smiles at her in the rear-view mirror as she hands Hannibal a sandwich to pass to him. His smile drops when he looks at Face. “What’s your excuse?”

Face shuffles slightly. “I just, ah – had a few little matters to sort out.”

Not looking up from rummaging through Amy’s bag, Murdock says, “He was trying to get the number from that girl at the checkout before we left.”

Face aims a kick at Murdock, who ignores him smugly.

“She was about ten years your junior, pal,” Hannibal remonstrates, lighting a cigar.

Immediately on the defensive, Face decries Hannibal’s own relations with a girl called Julie whom Amy has never heard of, but Hannibal is unperturbed, laughing even. Face, too, although his hands twist together in apparent discomfort, is perfectly at his ease – especially when out or reach of B.A.’s hands. Amy wonders whether it would be rude of her to take out her notebook and make some notes on their behaviour. After all, they didn’t want her writing an article about them, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some material in case they ever change their minds…

“Her age don’t matter anyway,” B.A. is saying. “This is a matter of life and death, Hannibal, and he only cares about getting girls’ numbers.”

“Hey, now I care about this mission as much as the next guy, it’s just – well, we took off in such a hurry and…” Face tails off, shrugging. 

Amy had thought when she’d been gathering supplies that she’d bought enough to last them - well, maybe not until tomorrow, but at least until they crossed the state line. In practicality, however, she’s drastically underestimated their appetites. Everything is gone within half an hour. Murdock at least has the grace to look a little guilty, but the others don’t seem concerned. 

Hannibal turns around in his seat and gestures to Murdock, and for several minutes they are engaged in quiet but involved discussion. Murdock draws some diagrams and shows them to Hannibal, who laughs but approvingly. Face has picked up Pepper’s book again and reads intently, biting his lip. B.A. is quietly focused, but occasionally glances at Hannibal and Murdock and nods, to show that he is listening. Murdock shows him the diagrams and B.A. rolls his eyes and turns back to the road ahead.


	4. 20:00PST

At about the four-hour mark, Amy insists on a rest break, and B.A. and Hannibal swap places. 

Having diligently ploughed through large chunks of Pepper’s book and having had other parts of it explained to him in a roundabout but extremely thorough way by Murdock, Face snaps it shut and the two of them begin work on doctoring the dustjacket. 

“Amy, could you just reach into the box behind you and pass me the green folder?” Each member of the team has a box that seems to be full of personal effects, stashed somewhere in the back of the van. Murdock’s has a painting of Kermit the Frog on the side; Face and B.A. also have boxes, both black, both around the same size. Hannibal’s is more of a suitcase, dilapidated and tied together with string. 

Amy pulls the green folder from Face’s box, flicking it open and taking a brief glimpse inside. “Face, these are all pictures of you!”

Face has the good grace to look abashed. B.A. reaches an arm out for the folder and Amy hands it to him, ignoring Face’s protests. He begins to rifle through them, giggling and flashing the best (or worst) to Hannibal for inspection. Soon the entire van is in uproar. 

“Give that back!” Face demands. 

Hannibal, not taking his eyes off the road, pulls out at random a colour photo of Face in lime green flares and an orange beagle-collared shirt. He glances at it. “Lieutenant! Those are not your colours.” 

B.A. is laughing harder now, until Face reaches forward and snatches the photos, bundling them back into the folder hastily. “Some of us have an image to maintain – Hannibal!” 

But Hannibal is cackling and makes no move to intervene on Face’s behalf. 

“Thanks, Amy,” says Face sarcastically, his smile more of a grimace.

“Sorry,” she says, not really sorry at all. “I’m a reporter. It’s my job to bring all sorts of crimes to light, fashion or otherwise.”

“Ha ha. Murdock, just pick one, will you, and we can get on?”

When they’re not bickering, they work pretty fast. Murdock retrieves the press from a cabinet in the back of the van while Amy cuts out the chosen photo, and before she knows it, they have a believable copy of Face’s new treatise on prison psychology. 

“Say, Hannibal,” says Face, frowning at the back of the discarded dustjacket. “Does this guy look familiar to you?” He passes it up to B.A., who shows it to Hannibal.

“Yeah,” Hannibal agrees. “I can’t seem to place him.”

Murdock reaches forward and takes it from B.A. “I feel like I know him.”

Amy hadn’t paid much attention to Pepper’s photo when she’d first picked the book up in the library, but she takes a closer look now over Murdock’s shoulder, and she has to admit that to her, too, the man carries a strange familiarity. 

“I don’t know where or why I’d have met him,” she muses. “But I’m sure he was friendly.”

Murdock nods. “Yeah. A friend.”

Further speculation on the subject leaves none of them any the wiser, however, so after a few minutes of circular discussion, they leave it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the man on the back of the dustjacket in the episode is stephen j. cannell. the team would have no reason to recognise him, but i like the idea that somehow they know they owe him something


	5. 21:00PST

The sun sets behind them as they drive, and darkness pulls in. B.A. and Murdock are both asleep now, B.A. with his head thrown back against the headrest of the passenger seat, Murdock passed out among the bags and boxes on the floor in the back. There’s not enough light to read Pepper’s book or write notes by, so Amy leans back in her seat and tries to sleep herself, but it doesn’t come. Whether it’s the novelty of such a road trip, apprehension over what they’re about to attempt in Florida, or Murdock and B.A.’s gentle, rhythmic snoring, something is keeping her awake. Beside her, Face’s eyes are open and he watches the road before them silently. He doesn’t seem to blink very often. Amy wants to ask if he’s okay, maybe tease him a little for being so spacey and mesmerised, but she’s put her foot in it over this sort of thing with Murdock enough times to know not to comment on any of the team’s strange behaviour.

Face seems to shake himself, then, and smiles at her in the darkness, before climbing out of his seat into the back, deftly avoiding Murdock’s sleeping form. There’s a little scuffling sound and then there’s light. Face hangs the lamp he’s just lit from a hook in the roof, and then steps back over Murdock and sits down again, bearing a pack of cards.

“Gin rummy?” he suggests to Amy.

“Sure, why not?”

“Word of advice for ya, kid,” says Hannibal. “Don’t. He’s a terrible cheat.”

Face looks scandalised. “Hannibal! I would never!”

B.A. shifts in his seat. “Man always cheats. Every time.” Then seems to go back to sleep.

Face’s hands are spread wide and he looks at Amy appealingly. “Amy. Do you really believe I’d cheat you?”

Amy shrugs, but can’t help a smile, which Face returns warmly as he deals her in.

As they play, he pulls a cigar and lights it, his cards face down on the seat beside him.

“You’d best open a window, fellas,” Murdock mumbles from behind them.

“Can it, Face,” says Hannibal. “Murdock’s up next to drive, and I don’t want him kept awake by your smoke.” He cranks the window down slightly and taps some ash from his own cigar out onto the road, where it streams past behind them like confetti.

“No, he _ain’t_!” says B.A., evidently awake again.

“Go back to sleep, B.A. I’ll wake you when we need you.”

Face sticks out his tongue at the back of Hannibal’s head, but puts out the cigar with a sigh.


End file.
